The Battle of Ümera, recorded by Henry…

Genghis Khan insults Emperor Wanyan Yongji (known in traditional histories as Prince Shao of Wei) by publicly stating in 1210 that he is a coward and unfit to be a leader.

Genghis adds, "The emperor should be a man from sky like me."

Soon, news spreads to the Jin emperor through a Jin officer.

The Jin emperor is enraged and orders the execution of the Mongolian ambassador.

Liang Kai had worked as an academic painter in his early years, but leaves the Song academy for a Chan Buddhist monastery at the peak of his career.

Called Crazy Liang because of his eccentric personality, he develops a more subjective and intuitive approach to painting than that of the contemporary academic school.

The highly influential Liang executes a celebrated monochrome ink painting, the Huineng Chopping Bamboo, in the qianbi or abbreviated style.

He dies in about 1210.

The walls of Yinchuan are by January 1210 nearly breached.

However, the dike used to divert the river breaks, and the ensuing flood wipes out the Mongol camp, forcing the Mongols to take higher ground.

Despite this setback, the Mongols still pose a threat to Western Xia, and with the state's crops destroyed and no relief coming from the Jin, Li Anquan agrees to submit to Mongol rule, demonstrating his loyalty by giving a daughter, Chaka, in marriage to Genghis and paying a tribute of camels, falcons, and textiles.

Western Xia attacks the Jin dynasty later in the year, ending years of peace between the two countries, as punishment for their refusal to aid them against the Mongols.

Muhammad II, the Khwarezm-Shah, takes Samarkand in 1210 after the Kara-Khitans retreat to deal with the rebellion from the Naiman Kuchlug, who had seized the Kara-Khitans' treasury at Uzgen.

The Khwarezm-Shah defeats the Kara-Khitans near Talas.

Muhammad and Kuchlug had, apparently, agreed to divide up the Kara-Khitan's empire.

Genghis Khan’s son eldest son, Jochi, had in 1207 successfully conquered the forest peoples in Siberia, extending the northern border of the Mongol Empire for the very first time.

On behalf of his father, Jochi leads a campaigns against the Kyrgyz in 1210.

Aibak dies accidentally in 1210 while he is playing a game of polo in Lahore on horseback: his horse falls and he is impaled on the pommel of his saddle.

He is buried near the Anarkali bazaar in Lahore.

Francis is soon joined by a prominent fellow townsman, Bernardo di Quintavalle, who contributes all that he has to the work, and by other companions, who are said to have reached the number of eleven within a year.

The brothers live in the deserted lazar-house of Rivo Torto near Assisi; but they spend much of their time traveling through the mountainous districts of Umbria, always cheerful and full of songs, yet making a deep impression on their hearers by their earnest exhortations.

Their life is extremely ascetic, though such practices are apparently not prescribed by the first rule which Francis has given them (probably as early as 1209), which seems to have been nothing more than a collection of Scriptural passages emphasizing the duty of poverty.

Soon attracting followers, Francis preaches the necessity of a poor, simple lifestyle based on the ideals of the Gospels.

In spite of some similarities between this principle and some of the fundamental ideas of the Waldensians, the brotherhood of Assisi succeeds in gaining the approval of Pope Innocent III.

What seems to have impressed first the Bishop of Assisi, Guido, then Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo and finally Innocent himself, is their utter loyalty to the Church and the clergy.

In approval, Pope Innocent III grants Francis and his disciples permission to preach on moral topics, and has Francis ordained a deacon, allowing him to read Gospels in the church.

The followers, who are tonsured, increase, called by Francis friars minor—the lesser brethren.

Innocent probably sees in them a possible answer to his desire for an orthodox preaching force to counter heresy.

Many legends have clustered around the decisive audience of Francis with the Pope.

The realistic account in Matthew Paris, according to which the Pope originally sent the shabby saint off to keep swine, and only recognized his real worth by his ready obedience, has, in spite of its improbability, a certain historical interest, since it shows the natural antipathy of the older Benedictine monasticism to the plebeian mendicant orders.

Otto, immediately breaking the promise made at Speyer to Innocent, invades the Sicilian lands of the young Frederick, for whom the pope is regent and feudal overlord.

Otto’s seizure of papal territory results in his excommunication by the pope.

The Suppression of the Amalricians and the Condemnation of David of Dinant (1210 CE)

The early 13th century saw a growing intellectual and theological crisis as radical pantheistic and Aristotelian philosophies challenged orthodox Christian doctrine. Two key figures—Amalric of Bena and David of Dinant—became associated with controversial teachings that led to severe ecclesiastical suppression in 1210.

The Amalricians and Their Persecution (1207–1210)

• Amalric of Bena, a former theology professor at the University of Paris, had been condemned for heresy in 1204 and died in 1207, reportedly from grief at his humiliation.
• After his death, a group of followers, known as the Amalricians, continued to spread his teachings.

Amalrician Beliefs

• The central doctrine of the Amalricians was radical pantheism, summed up in the phrase:

  "All things are One, because whatever is, is God."

• They denied traditional Church teachings on creation, seeing the entire universe as identical to God.
• Many priests and clerics were among their ranks, allowing them to spread their teachings undetected for some time.

The Amalrician Crackdown (1210)

• In 1210, the Bishop of Paris, Peter, and Philip II’s adviser, Chevalier Guérin, uncovered the sect with the help of Master Ralph, an undercover informant.
• A council of bishops and scholars from the University of Paris gathered to punish the Amalricians.
• Sentences were harsh:
  • Ignorant converts (including women) were pardoned.
  • Four principal members were imprisoned for life.
  • Ten Amalricians were burned at the stake in Paris as heretics.
  • Amalric’s body was exhumed, burned, and his ashes scattered to obliterate his memory.

David of Dinant and His Condemnation (1210)

Who Was David of Dinant?

• A magister (teacher), likely at the University of Paris, David studied Aristotle’s Physics and Metaphysics, which had recently been reintroduced to Europe after the Crusades.
• He may have lived in Rome under Pope Innocent III, though details of his life remain obscure.
• His major work, Quaternuli (Little Notebooks), developed a radical metaphysical system that blurred the boundaries between matter, intellect, and God.

David’s Pantheistic Philosophy

David believed that everything in existence could be divided into three fundamental elements:

1. Matter (yle) – The indivisible essence of physical bodies.
2. Intellect (nous) – The fundamental nature of the mind and soul.
3. God (Deus) – The eternal, unifying force.

His most heretical claim was that these three were actually the same substance, meaning that:

"All things, material, intellectual, and spiritual, have one and the same essence—God."

This was a direct challenge to Christian orthodoxy, which maintained a strict distinction between Creator and creation.

The Council of Paris (1210) and the Ban on Aristotle

• In 1210, David’s Quaternuli was condemned as heretical by a provincial council led by the Bishop of Sens.
• The council ordered:
  • David’s works to be burned.
  • Anyone found possessing his writings after Christmas to be declared a heretic.
  • A ban on Aristotle’s works on natural philosophy, fearing they were leading to dangerous, unorthodox conclusions.

Although David of Dinant’s own fate is unknown, his ideas were aggressively suppressed, and his influence can only be reconstructed through later critics, such as Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas.

The Broader Impact of the 1210 Condemnations

• The suppression of Amalrician pantheism and David of Dinant’s Aristotelian radicalism reflected growing Church anxieties about rationalist and mystical challenges to doctrine.
• The ban on Aristotle’s works highlighted the conflicted relationship between Christianity and classical philosophy, though Aristotle would later be rehabilitated through figures like Aquinas.
• The Amalricians were eradicated, but their influence persisted in later mystical movements, inspiring radical thinkers and spiritual reformers in later centuries.

The 1210 condemnations marked an important moment in the intellectual history of medieval Europe, showing the limits of theological tolerance in the early 13th century and setting the stage for future conflicts between reason and faith in scholastic thought.